Complete Immersion
by With Death Comes More Death
Summary: When Lelouch was killed during the Zero Requiem he is given a second chance is sent to a new world. Not long after entering the new world he soon finds himself in the virtual world of Sword Art Online and after being entrapped in the game, he learns the most important rule of the virtual world. You die in the game, you die in real life.
1. Chapter 0: Complete Immersion

Ello people, and welcome to the first chapter of whatever I'm calling this crossover. Well if any you guys seen my profile, I put something of this description under 'in progress'. Well here it is!

So if you've seen any of my previous stories, I've done a lot of Code Geass FanFics, but this is my first time doing anything related to Sword Art Online, so if I get any elements wrong I apologize, point them out and I will fix them. You have my word on that.

There is going to be a good amount of filler from real life to SAO so bear with me until we get to Lelouch killing things with a sword.

I really have no clue why I'm even making this story, just felt like something I needed to do because well my mind wouldn't let me think of other things. So follow/favorite if you'd like and enjoy.

**-Disclaimer-**

I don't own either Code Geass or Sword Art Online.

**Chapter 0: Complete Immersion**

Lelouch grimaced as the huge blade in his chest was pulled out of him, the pain coming in a sharp sting. He staggered forward, his attacker moving out of his way, flinging his blood of his blade. Soon there was no more room for him to move forward and he fell onto the ramp in front of him.

He slid on his bleeding chest and tumbled onto my back, sliding onto the end of the ramp with a thud. The world around him had started fading away from his senses, replacing them with the memories of his life. They flashed by one after the other, every good memory and every bad one, each having their own significance to him.

"L-lelouch, are you?" he heard his little sister voice like it was nothing but a whisper in the darkness. "Yes...I," he began weakly, "I destroyed the world and created... anew."

With those words, all of his remaining energy ran out, making him close his eyes one more time. Forever sealing him in the darkness he created for himself.

* * *

"**Lelouch vi Britannia, we finally meet in person," **a booming voice asked, the intensity of the voice making it impossible to distinguish whether it was a boy or girl. _'Is that the collective unconscious?' _he asked inwardly, _'Of course it is, I'm supposed to be dead right now.'_

The former emperor forced his heavy eyes open to be met with the culmination of every human will in the universe, taking the form of the planet Jupiter, the Collective Unconscious. This would be his judgment day and he already know that hell was his destination, why even try to kid himself.

He was a demon and demons belong in hell, not in heaven, all he had to do was wait for his sentence.

"**You deem yourself worth of punishment? Though it would make sense knowing that you were setting yourself up for death as the most hated man in the world," **The Collective Unconscious, **"Though it is not up to you to judge your actions in life Lelouch, it is mine, not a single will can change that." **

Lelouch was confused on what it meant by that, what does she mean that she was the only one who could judge his actions. He did the most heinous actions thinkable, how the hell can it say that he didn't deserve to be punished?

"**For every wrong deed you committed, you did a good ten times greater, and the Zero Requiem is far greater than every sin you committed these few months. Therefore you are not worthy of going to hell," **the Collective Unconscious explained, **"but I can not bring you to heaven either too many people believe you a demon to do so." **

"So what now?" Lelouch asked, narrowing his eyes at the giant entity, wondering how fate could be so cruel to him. He didn't preform the Zero Requiem so that he wouldn't be punished, he had destroyed everything to be punished, not saved from torture. He could of done everything diplomatically when he was an Emperor, the Zero Requiem was to ensure that he would be punished.

"**I would like to propose a contract between ourselves," **the Collective Unconscious stated, shocking Lelouch so much that his eyes widened. _'So my I started on this path of destruction with a contract, and I'll end with one,' _Lelouch thought, inwardly laughing at the cruel humor.

"So tell me, what is this contract you propose," Lelouch asked, his amusement in the situation leaking into his voice. **"I take you to another universe," **it answered, **"A place where no one you know or knows you exists, there is no Britannia, and the future is bright for the world. Would you like me to take you there?"**

Lelouch looked at the entity in the sky, for the first time in a long time being completely dumbfounded. Did he really have a choice in the matter, it just said that there was no soul in the world that could deny it, so how would he be able to say no to this?

"Do I really have a choice?" Lelouch asked begrudgingly. **"No you don't have a choice in the matter,"** the Collective Unconscious, **"but I am impressed with your conviction though, every other soul would jump at the opportunity, you are truly a better man than most." **

With that Lelouch felt the overwhelming pressure on his eyelids, forcing him to close them as the world around him seemed to morph into something else. Though fear didn't seem to grow inside him, something deep inside of him believed what the Collective Unconscious had told him.

Now he only had to wait and see where he was going, though that in itself was the longest few seconds of his life. Because the world he was about to come into, was the one where he would make his new life, and hopefully it was a good one.

* * *

Finally the overwhelming pressure on his eyes suddenly lessened substantially, allowing him to pry them open. The amethyst orbs found themselves being bombarded by bright light, blinding him slightly.

Lelouch suddenly finding the energy to do so, he forced himself to sit up. He blinked frantically trying to get his eyes adjusted to the light, he twisted his head towards the source of the light, finding that sunlight was pouring in through an open blind.

It didn't take long to see that this was a bedroom, the fact that there was a bed in it was enough to make that point. Lelouch began listing off the objects in the room that were in plain sight.

_'A pair of computers, a pair of alarm clocks,' _he continued, noticing the amount of things that came in pairs, _'Another bed with some lying in it, a clos-'_

Lelouch had just noticed the other bed in the room, someone was sleeping in it. With his/her head facing towards the wall, he couldn't tell what he/she looked like. The only thing that was visible was the back of his/her head, which revealed that he/she had was messy black hair.

_'Wonder who that could be?' _he thought curiously, wondering who his new room mate was, _'I could always ask, but that would look weird, so how do I do this?' _

Lelouch gaze left his room mate and moved towards one of the alarm clocks that was in the room, which had told him that it was almost seven in the morning.

_'Wow I'm never up this early,' _the former emperor thought letting his mind get off-topic for the first time in a while. He had always had to keep his mind focused that very few things distracted him like any more, so it felt good to allow his mind some reprieve.

Then it occurred to the strategical genius that he didn't have to scheme any longer, which meant that his brain was allowed to think about things a normal teenager would think about. Though there was only one problem with that, he didn't know what a normal teenager thought about, because he wasn't normal.

He let out a sigh at his predicament and slipped himself out of the bed he was lying on. As he pushed himself out of the bed, he felt odd. He strangely felt shorter for some reason, he physically shorter. How was that even possible?

He looked down at his legs as they fell limply out of bed, his feet touching the soft carpet that made up the floor around his bed, noticing that they were shorter than usual.

Narrowing his eyes, he picked himself up out of the bed. Even when he stood up straight, he felt shorter. It took him a moment to get used to the feeling of having shorter legs, which he doubted many people had to go through very often.

Luckily he had always adjusted to things quickly. He made his was towards the door in the middle of the bedroom and pushed his way out into the hallway.

Looking around the sunlight lit hallway, he found that there wasn't much to it, it was very simple.

_'Now where would a bathroom be in this place?' _he thought curiously. A door next to his room had a wooden sign reading something in Japanese that read: Suguha's room. The name sounded it belonged to a female and the wooden cat also told him that it belonged to one of a younger age than himself.

The Japanese markings also told him that he was somewhere in Japan, which proved useful to him. He didn't want to be landed in some place where he didn't know their language.

The former emperor wandered around the upstairs hallway looking for the bathroom, the first attempt he made lead him to the room of an older woman who was sleeping soundly in her bed. She was probably the owner of the house.

His second attempt was much more fruitful, the door had led to bathroom as he hoped. It had the things that were available in a standard bathroom: a toilet, a bath, and a sink with a mirror hanging over it.

The former emperor made his way towards the sink and looked in the mirror, not bothering to close the door behind him. When he reached the mirror, his reflection had made his eyes widen in shock.

Lelouch now knew why he had felt shorter, the person in his reflection had looked exactly what he looked like when he was fourteen. Though there was one thing that didn't seem to change an ounce, it was his eyes, still having their heavy feel to them.

_'Guess that's a trait you can't change so easily,' _he thought, knowing that the weight that your eyes came with only came with experience. It took seeing the best and the worst of humanity, that was the only way to make your eyes like this.

_'So the Collective Unconscious took me to a world where I'm still fourteen, what does that do for me exactly?' _Lelouch thought, extremely confused by the situation, though there was still one thing on his mind, _'Do I still have my Geass?' _

He reached his hand up to his eyes, noting that they didn't seem to be as bony as they used to be, but continued reaching up to his eyes. As his index and middle finger grew close to where he placed his Geass-Resistant contact lenses, his fingers slightly grazed his corneas.

Lelouch let out a relieved sigh, he was finally free of the curse of Geass. The damned power had taken so much away from him, that to be able to be free from it took made him feel so much better.

He turned the cold water nob on the sink, letting water flow from the faucet. He took some in his hand and splashed it on his face, making sure that this wasn't just some dream.

This only accomplished to gain get his face soaking wet. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he reached for the nearby face towel, using it to dry his face.

Returning his gaze back at the mirror, he could only wonder where exactly he fit inside of this new world of his. He could just ask them there names as if he didn't know them, that would be the definition of a stupid idea.

_'Maybe there's something around here that'll tell me who I'm living with,'_ he thought, looking back towards the hallway, _'Guess it couldn't hurt, I do live here after all.' _

Lelouch made his way down the stairs he saw earlier and into what looked like a living room. It was rather small with not too many pieces of furniture. As he scanned the area, a picture frame sitting on a table caught his attention.

The former emperor walked over to the table and picked the picture off the table, the picture displayed a family of five in what seemed to be a park of some kind. He blinked at it, recognizing a younger version of himself from the group of five strangers around him.

He got a strange feeling from the photo, making his eyes linger onto the photo for a good while. Then he realized with every face on the photo, a name popped into his mind. Almost if he was remembering a past event without the nostalgia, and was given just unfamiliarity. He was remembering a memory that he had, but didn't belong to him.

The middle-aged man standing next to the woman from earlier was his father, and nothing else. Which made sense since he knew him as a father only, already being on a first name basis so early in his life would have meant they had some type of problem with each other.

Next came the woman he had saw lying in bed earlier, recognizing her as his mother. The feelings of emptiness and caring trickled inside of him, making him wonder what their relationship had been like to make him feel this way.

Lelouch's eyes drifted onto a young girl, maybe two years younger than his current self, the name Suguha popping into his mind. His memories told him that she was his little sister, but something did strike him as odd. The feelings of unconditional love and emptiness he had felt towards his 'parents' continued to linger inside of him.

The last member of the family was a black-haired boy looking to be around the same age as him, sharing the same grayish-black eyes of the rest of the family. The dark-haired boy was Lelouch's brother, named Kazuto and unlike the other members of his new 'family', the empty feeling he felt had disappeared completely.

He could feel a connection between himself and Kazuto, but it wasn't one of close siblings. It was one best friends had, much like the one he had with Suzaku. It definitely wasn't a normal family dynamic by any sense of the word.

The former emperor set the picture frame back down onto the carefully, trying to place it back into its original location. Though it had left him with more questions than answers.

**-Sugu P.O.V-**

Suguha had awoken to the sound of her alarm clock blaring into her ears. Hitting the snooze button, she pulled herself from her bed and let out a quiet yawn.

She began her usual routine of getting ready for early morning kendo practice, breakfast, kendo club, and then repeat the next day. It wasn't like she had much to do here at home in the first place, especially with both her brothers acting like complete jerks to her.

It wasn't that they were being mean to her and it wasn't even recent, they had just stopped being with her entirely about four years ago. It made her wonder if she had done something to drive them away, but she wouldn't give up on them.

She wanted to be a part of their lives again, but every time she attempted they were always playing around on their computers, playing their beloved online games. It infuriated her though she pretended to keep her cheerful outlook on life, not wanting to see the effect their actions had on her.

She shed the long t-shirt she wore as her pajamas and dressed into her kendo training uniform, making her way out of the room. As she walked over to the stairs she peered into the open door of her brothers' room, seeing that Lelouch's bed was completely empty.

_'Is Lelouch already awake?' _she thought curiously, wondering what Lelouch was doing up at this hour. It was about seven o'clock, but Lelouch never woke up before ten o'clock. When he did, he was usually on his computer doing whatever he did on their.

Suguha made her way down the stairs, where the voice of her older brother Lelouch, called out to her, "Good morning Sugu."

His voice had completely taken her off-guard, making her foot miss the next step down. Her foot twisted under her as it touched to foot underneath the target step, making a sharp pain go through her ankle as she fell forward. She expected to be in more pain once she hit the ground, but suddenly her fall suddenly came to a stop.

"Are you alright?" the worried voice of Lelouch, making her realize that he had caught her. Opening her eyes, she was currently being held bridal style by her older brother, who had a relieved smile plastered onto her face. She shook her head as pain continued to shoot from her ankle, making Lelouch reply worriedly, "Where are you hurt?"

Suguha pointed towards her ankle, Lelouch carried her to the couch and placed her down gently. He touched her ankle lightly, causing a slight sting to go through the painful ankle.

"Don't worry, it doesn't seem to be broken, a sprain at worst," Lelouch diagnosed expertly, surprising Suguha greatly, "I'll go find something that will stop the swelling."

With that Lelouch left her side and moved to the kitchen, leaving her there in her thoughts.

_'When did Lelouch learn how to diagnose a sprained ankle from such a light touch?' _she questioned inwardly before her aching ankle stopped her from thinking, _'Man that hurts!' _

Thankfully her raven-haired brother came back holding a plastic bag holding fulled of ice. Her brother placed the bag onto her ankle, numbing the pain in her ankle greatly, allowing Suguha to let out a sigh in relief.

"Thanks," she thanked in relief. "Don't mention it," Lelouch reassured kindly, "You're my sister right?"

Suguha's eyes widen at the rhetorical question, not expecting such kindness from her estranged older brother. She inwardly berated herself at thinking that way about her brother, believing that it was wrong to think that her brother of all people wouldn't help her if she was hurt.

Yet something seemed off about the whole situation. The kindness in Lelouch's voice didn't sound anything like the Lelouch she knew, even before he began pushing her out of his life. The tone felt like it was said by someone older than him, decades older, when they had mastered the art of sounding kind.

It wasn't like she minded that it was happening, the tone in his voice able to sooth her into immediate relaxation. She stared at Lelouch as he held the bag of ice on her aching ankle, staring into the pools of violet that were his eyes, which some how seemed aged in a way. Much like the way her grandfather's eyes in the few moments she could remember him, holding so much experience and knowledge that it was impossible to ignore. So how was it possible that Lelouch had the exact same look in his eyes?

"What happened to us?" Lelouch asked, the sudden question snapping her out of her thoughts. The look on her brother's face was one of regret, allowing his eyes to be shadowed by his long raven bangs. Once again his voice snapped her out of her thoughts, her older brother now looking over towards the family photo that they had taken five years ago, "We looked so happy back then, what happened to us?"

That was the question she wanted to ask her brothers for so long and as it turns out, Lelouch didn't know either. These past four years he and Kazuto had been driving her out of their lives for reasons unknown to her. She was left speechless by the question, until finally all the pent-up emotion about the subject finally boiled over to the surface. Tears began welling up in her eyes something that Lelouch noticed immediately, but didn't say anything, allowing her to process her emotions.

"I really don't know," she answered, her tone of a person who was about to break out in tears and that's what she did. Hot tears began flowing down her cheeks as she let out every ounce of sadness she had accumulated from the past four years.

Lelouch didn't say anything at first, he just wra7th pped his arms around her and whispered softly to her, "It's okay to cry, it always is."

At this the dam that held back the rest of her teals broke, losing herself in the pouring out of emotion. She began weeping into the chest of her older brother, but with the showing of all the sadness she had, she felt happy. One of her brothers had finally acknowledged the situation between them made her so happy Giving her hope that she wasn't going to be shut out from their lives for any longer.

**-Lelouch P.O.V-**

When Suguha had stopped crying, an hour had passed by, and Lelouch never once thought of disengaging the embrace that he held her in. Not really expecting such an outpouring of emotion, as it was just to figure out why he felt so empty when he looked at her. It really compelled him to ask the question and he believed it to be the right move.

He didn't enjoy making girls cry, though this one seemed to be more positive than the other times he had. It felt as if he had unknowingly mended a strained relationship between this world's Lelouch and herself. Though he didn't get an answer to his prior question, he felt like that this was something more important.

He scoffed mentally, wondering what C.C would think if she saw this. The infamous demon emperor comforting an almost complete stranger in his arms as she cried. He thanked the collective unconscious that he was in a different universe.

When his 'sister' finally pulled her face away from his chest, the violet t-shirt he was wearing was now completely soaked with tears. Though he wasn't in any position to complain, considering he didn't have to hug to comfort her, so this where it got him. Yet as he watched her pull away from him, a set of memories had came to mind. Explaining everything in great detail.

He wasn't a blood member of the Kirigaya family, his birth family was Charles and Marianne Lamperouge, a happy couple who had moved to the Saitama, area a year prior. They learned of his eventual birth some time in January. Lelouch Lamperouge was born October 7th, 2008, coincidentally being the same day that Kazuto had been born.

A few days after their respective births, Kazuto and his parents were killed in the same accident, the two being the only two people who had survived the accident. Both were sent to the same orphanage, where Kazuto's aunt and uncle had came to adopt their nephew.

Then their carer had told them how lucky Kazuto was to have family. As Lelouch, who was in the next crib, didn't have any family who were able to take him in. Prompting them to ask her how Lelouch had gotten in the orphanage, finding out about Lelouch's parents being in the same accident.

Feeling bad for Lelouch, they had decided to adopt Kazuto believing that they could take another child in.

Fast forwarding a few years in the future, both began to follow in their mother's footsteps and dive into computers. Finding it a much better past time than the kendo lessons they were almost being forced to take by their grandfather.

They began rebuilding beat-up computers and turned them better than brand new, allowing them to process programs that most of the really expensive computers couldn't handle. This made them outcast in their schools often times showing more interest in technology than making friends.

This had also strengthened their relationship, sharing a trait most found unappealing, growing closer than most brothers would hope over the the fact that they had stopped taking kendo did not sit well with their grandfather, who started to beat them once he learned they quit. Even when this happening, the two still found time to have fun with Suguha who had begun taking kendo lessons to cover for all of them. Having such a relationship between all siblings being really rare.

Then one day Kazuto had found a document while sifting through the forgotten data banks of the National Registry, one detailing their respective adoptions by the Kirigaya family. This had served to drive a wedge between the pair and Suguha, as they felt like they weren't a real part of the family.

Though their relationship didn't suffer, but improve, as they shared the feeling.

As the memories had concluded, Lelouch was shocked. The pure circumstance of the situation hitting him. All the circumstances that needed to happen was astounding, all the things that should of happened to get to this point had happened.

Though the memories of younger Lelouch ignoring Suguha just because he didn't feel like a part of the family had sickened, especially when his sisters in his past life were so important to him, but what could he do about someone else's actions?

_'Why did the Collective Unconscious bring me here of all places? Is this some test?' _he questioned angrily, as he was never one who liked to be toyed with.

"Are you alright Lelouch?" Suguha asked, snapping him out of his thoughts as she waved her hand in front of him. Lelouch blinked as he realized that he had spaced out.

"Yeah I'm fine," Lelouch reassured, letting out a tired sigh, "I should get you back up to your room. I don't think you're going anywhere with that sprained ankle of yours."

"But what about kendo practice?" his 'sister' protested, something that upset him greatly, "My ankle doesn't hurt as much as it did earlier, I can still go!"

The girl was injured and she still wanted to go and practice? _'She must really care about, then again its has been such an important part of her life so I can't blame her,' _he noted mentally.

"I think they'll understand if you miss one practice because of injury," Lelouch countered, taking on a brotherly tone before running a hand through his raven-black hair, "Now come on, lets get you to bed."

Lelouch slipped his arms under Suguha and heaved her up into the air. He began the rather tolling task of carrying the girl up the stairs and into her room. He laid her down onto her bed and told her in the same brotherly tone from earlier, "Rest."

Suguha begrudgingly nodded in resignation and laid her head back onto her pillow. Prompting Lelouch to exit her bedroom, closing the door behind him. When he turned around, he found his adoptive mother standing outside. She seemed extremely worried, obviously noticing something wrong.

"I heard crying earlier, was it your sister?" his 'mother' asked worriedly. Lelouch didn't reply, only nodding in response. In which the worried mother continued with, "Why was she crying?"

"She sprained her ankle," Lelouch began, his tone completely without emotion, making his adoptive mother flinch, "Can you tell her club she won't be making it today?"

His 'mother' nodded, left completely speechless. Lelouch didn't want to speak with his adoptive mother, he felt like nothing really could be said about the whole situation. It was his responsibility to repair now and he was going to do it his way, for now all he needed to do was talk to his 'brother'.

He walked over to the door to his room and walked in, leaving his mother in the hall completely speechless.

* * *

Lelouch watched over the sleeping form of his 'brother', Kazuto, and turned back to the computer screen. His eyebrow twitched in annoyance as another minute ticked by.

_'How the hell can someone sleep so much?' _he asked impatiently as it was now ten-thirty, three hours since he had decided to wait for him to wake up. He continued to read the text on the page about world history, now getting a section about a war between several major countries of the world, simply called World War II. He had already read all of the major events leading up to the present date, now he was just re-reading information that he thought interesting.

Lelouch let out a tired sigh and leaned back in his seat and wondered what to do next until his adoptive brother would wake up. Though when he was searching his mind for something to do, a thought came to mind. He felt almost compelled to go and look under his bed.

Lelouch did as his mind commanded and went over to his bed. He knelt down and looked underneath the bed frame and looked into the space. What he found surprised him, it was a helmet of some kind. It looked extremely bulky and had a small piece of glass where the eyes should go. On top of the helmet was a word inscribed in Japanese characters, NerveGear.

_'NerveGear?' _he repeated inwardly, studying the helmet curiously, _'Wonder why I would have this.' _

Lelouch immediately placed the NerveGear down onto his bed and returned to his computer. He typed 'NerveGear' into the search box in the top right corner of the screen. After a few seconds the screen went to a list of pages on the helmet.

Seeing as Wikipedia was continually at the top of every search list, Lelouch clicked on it and waited for the page to load once again as he really didn't want to spend any more time on the subject than necessary.

He began reading what the people had posted on the site and was greatly intrigued by the bulky helmet that sat on his bed.

The NerveGear is a new piece of virtual reality or FullDive technology, a system that sent microwaves to your brain to simulate real life. It was created by a man named, Kayaba Akihiko, and was recently released to the public in May.

The piece of technology had been proclaimed as the greatest thing to hit the face of gaming in the last decade. Though it did not sell initially because there were no major games that supported the system, so last month a thousand beta testers were allowed access to the first major game for the VR system.

It was a MMO called Sword Art Online or SAO by the players. As fortune had it, he was one of the thousand beta testers. Kazuto had also received a copy of the beta, if these foreign memories of his were correct. They had spent a good amount of last month exploring ten of the hundred floors in which the game's world, Aincard, was made out of. The two of them had gotten the farthest together than any other players in the beta, who were relatively inexperienced in MMO games.

The beta didn't last forever, it had only lasted a month before being released to the public yesterday at midnight. The beta testers were offered the full game before the other people who have to wait through the lines and buy them at retail stores. So it was no surprise that they both bought the game immediately.

The online servers would go online today at eleven-thirty in the morning, seeing it was already eleven twenty-five, he should probably wake Kazuto so that he could get online too. He walked over to his sleeping 'brother' and gently nudged the messy-haired teen on the shoulder lightly. The nudge was, of course, wasn't enough to wake him up from his deep slumber.

Lelouch clasped his hands together next to Kazuto's exposed ear quietly and brought them apart, a small smirk crept onto his face as he prepared for the next few moments. He quickly brought his hands together next to his adoptive brother's ear with the most force he could possibly muster, startling his adoptive brother out of his skin.

Kazuto let out a loud yelp as he jumped out from under his blanket, making Lelouch snicker softly at the display. This drew his adoptive brother's attention towards him, he bore an angry scowl something that Lelouch has faced several times before.

"Get up sleepy head or we're going to miss the server opening for SAO," Lelouch explained in a sing-song voice, a coy smile that would make C.C proud gracing his face. Kazuto blinked at him disbelievingly before his head snapped over to his alarm clock. It took him two minutes to get his brother awake, a bit longer than he expected or wanted, but how could he argue with someone he didn't know.

"Oh crap, we better long on!" Kazuto replied hurriedly. He rushed out of his bed and pulled his NerveGear from under his bed. Lelouch took this time to waltz over to his bed casually and plugged the wire connecting the headset to the internet, into the computer's tower.

Kazuto was still in the middle of turning on his computer when Lelouch placed his copy of SAO into the disk drive. The former emperor placed the bulky headset onto his head and began laying himself flat on his bed slowly, his adoptive brother rushing to do the same.

Lelouch turned his head over to Kazuto's side of the room, seeing that he had put himself in the same position as himself, Lelouch muttered the words that would start the FullDive procedure and take him to Aincard, "Link start."

* * *

Lelouch was astounded as the interfaces in front of him quickly selected the settings previously set by this world's Lelouch. It had set his preferred language to Japanese, calibrated his limbs, and selected a character named Lerouge.

_'Lerouge, unique name,' _he noted as his vision was soon enveloped by flashes of light, making it look as if I was going through a portal. When the lights had faded, he didn't feel as if he were in some game or as if he had just been looking at a picture on the screen. No, he felt as if his physical body had been moved.

Lelouch noticed that he could see the elements of a HUD in his vision, telling him his player's name, health, and level. A name popped up in the center of his screen reading: Starter City. He took a look at the city around him, everything looked and felt like real life. He could smell the clean air around him, hear the voices of other players talk around him taking in every detail as he was. Hell he could even feel the sun's rays on his face as he stood there.

Lelouch didn't feel any different physically though. Though looking down, he saw that his choice of clothing had changed.

He now wore a long-sleeved violet shirt, being covered by a light leather chest piece which he doubted would protect him from much. A pair of black pants and combat boots made up the bottom piece of his avatar's outfit. Which was really nothing special, as everyone else seemed to have the same clothes as he did, the only real difference were the colors so it wasn't saying much.

_'This is...' _Lerouge began in complete amazement, being impressed by something for the first time in awhile, _'This is amazing!' _

After collecting himself from his earlier amazement, he began noting that all the players around him had green cursors on top of them. This had meant that they were friendly players, a different color would either mean they're a NPC, a criminal, or a hostile enemy.

"Lerouge!" his ears perking at the sound of someone calling his name behind him, pronouncing his name as Le Rouge. Lelouch turned on a heel to see an absurdly handsome man running in his direction. Though the strange thing was that he could see the character's name, unlike the other players who just had the green cursor on top of their heads. The man's name graphic read Kirito, the name unfamiliar to Lerouge at first before he realized that it was the name Kazuto had chosen for his avatar.

Kazuto ended up running directly past him, but not without gesturing that he wanted Lelouch to follow him. Lelouch did as instructed and ran after his adoptive brother, though in his usual fit of paranoia, he asked himself, _'Wonder where he's taking me?' _

Lelouch knew all too well that he had no reason to not trust Kirito, as he only knew Lelouch as his brother and nothing more. Not the masked vigilante Zero, not the demon emperor Lelouch vi Britannia, just plain old Lelouch Kirigaya. Though the point that could be made that Lelouch didn't know Kazuto whatsoever, he had foreign memories of him, but no real experiences.

Lelouch realized that thinking that way wouldn't help either, so he shook away his paranoia for the moment as he continued running through the streets of Starter City.

Then out of nowhere, someone screamed on the top of their lungs to stop. Taken completely off-guard, Kazuto did as commanded and skidded to a stop. Lelouch, who was several feet behind him, had time to gradually come to a walking stop.

"Hey! Bros wait up!" yelled the same voice, a crimson-haired male emerging from the blur of the crowd, "You two are beta testers right?!"

The two adoptive siblings blinked in perfect unison at the question the man had asked and then nodded hesitantly.

"Good, my name is Klien," Klien greeted bowing slightly. "Ah, my name is Lerouge," Lelouch introduced himself and then gestured to Kazuto, "and this is my close associate Kirito."

"Nice to meet you," Kazuto greeted, sounding slightly uncomfortable. "So back to business," Klien began sternly, "Can either of you two show me the ropes?"

Lelouch wasn't sure that he could trust Klien, who indeed told him his name, but he wouldn't be sure unless he had saw his name graphic. There was also the fact that he had came out of completely nowhere, but that was essentially the only way to make friends in MMO's. The former emperor wondered why he was caring so much, this was a game, why would any one need to betray someone else so early into the release?

"Sure, I'll do it," Kazuto stated hesitantly, shaking Lelouch from the clutches of his thoughts, "Lerouge go ahead to the plains, I'll go and show Klien the basics."

Lelouch blinked and then nodded tentatively, and then in a whisper loud enough for only Kazuto to hear he reminded him, "Careful."

Though the same thing more likely could have been said about him, considering that he had no clue how the game worked. Then again the foreign memories may just explain it to him like it has been. Just when he thought that, the memories of him playing in the beta came back to him.

Everyone who is starting out would get a choice between a variety of one-handed weapon skills, that would allow them to use a certain category of weapons, but Lelouch had chosen the simplest one of the bunch, the one-handed straight-sword skill.

In combat, you would fight with a sword just like in real life, dodging and attacking when you would have an opportunity. Then there were the sword skills, which pretty much said everything. A set of moves that one wouldn't be able to do by themselves which guaranteed a hit on your opponent. Though it would cause a point of overall complete weakness called the 'cool down' stage which rendered the player completely immobile, implemented so that players wouldn't spam the skills constantly.

The goal in SAO was to clear all hundred levels in Aincard, which seemed like an impossible thing to do, in a month of non-stop playing the farthest any one got was floor ten.

Still Lelouch really had no clue where he was going, his legs were really turning on their own now, the only thing he was doing was just the actual running without tackling a random bystander. Which was easy enough considering people were too busy being amazed by the world around them to really move around.

Eventually he found himself running past the gate of Starter City and into the open plains outside of the safe zone. He looked for any enemy to fight, wanting to see how difficult the game was this early in the game.

As he ran, he eventually ran into a giant boar creature standing proud at around his waste region. The name of the monster simply being named Frenzy Boar. Lelouch already knew that the boar was the weakest enemy of the game and decided to fight the giant pig.

Skimming his index finger downwards in front of him, the player's personal menu opened. Quickly tapping the inventory box and equipped the starter sword. He reached behind his right shoulder where his sheathe lay and gripped the handle.

Pulling it from the sheathe, the blade made a loud noise as he unsheathed it. Lelouch quickly advanced on the boar's position and placed the flat part of his blade onto his right shoulder, the blade glowing a dim violet as he did so. The boar turned towards him and got in a defensive stance, signifying that he had provoked the monster. Thought the action of getting prepared for an attack on the boar's part was for naught.

With a single horizontal slash that caught the boar's mid-section with the sword skill horizontal, the weak monster's health depleted rapidly on the moment it reached zero, the boar exploded in a spray of blue pixels. Lelouch's body slumped over for a second as the cool down took effect.

The former emperor smirked darkly at the feeling of killing the virtual boar, there being a certain satisfaction of slicing straight through something. The best part was that there was tug on the blade or a resistance that made him pull the sword with him as he flew forward.

Wanting to feel the sensation once again, he took off looking for a monster that was roaming the grasslands. Following the path that he took to get outside of Starter City so that he wouldn't get lost killing random mobs, as they were called in MMO's.

As he ran, Lelouch noticed another monster off in the distance, this time being more than just one. A pack of literal wolves to be exact. He counted at least six in the pack. Probably too much for him to fight with this level, but he couldn't die in this world and he wanted a challenge.

Lelouch charged the pack of wolves with uncharacteristic recklessness, quickly gaining the attention of all of the wolves. Making the former emperor stop and go into a defensive stance, which he was taught during his early years as a prince during his mandatory swordsmanship classes.

The raven-haired teen watched as the wolves began to encircle him from all sides, briefly remembering that he was just lucky to see a pack of wolves this early considering most in the general region would only spawn if someone wanted to advance to the next towns one-by-one.

The red-eyed canines let out menacing growls, not affecting Lelouch to the slightest, finding that having to stare down the barrels of guns much more terrifying, which in all actuality was reasonable.

A pair of wolves on both of his sides began converging onto him slowly, waiting to pounce onto him at the same time. Lelouch knew that the goal was to make him dodge forward and into the eager teeth of their comrades, so when they pounced Lelouch rolled to the right, the wolf just barely flying overhead.

The action didn't come smoothly, finding himself lying on his back instead on his feet, but it served the purpose. Lelouch remembered that more wolves were closing in on him due to his supine position.

The raven-haired teen heaved himself to his feet with a grunt, just in time to the lead wolf of the pack. Having an amazing reaction time by nature, Lelouch side-stepped the lunge attempted by the beast and slashed downwards. Getting a critical hit as he lobbed the wolf's head clean off, ending up much like the frenzy boar from earlier.

Immediately after, the other wolves wasted no time to pounce at him. Thinking quickly, Lelouch activated the vertical sword skill and slashed through the nearest wolf, ending up with him on the other side of the wave of wolves.

The wolf he had hit with vertical had exploded like the other monsters he had slain today, exploding into a million blue pixels.

_'Come on, hurry up!' _Lelouch thought, beginning to panic as the cool down set in. He could hear the wolves beginning to close back onto him. Then finally the cool down ended, allowing him to turn around, just to see the lead wolf leaping onto him.

Finding no better option, Lelouch slashed at the leaping wolf with the novice sword, hoping to at least block the attack. Everything felt like it was in complete slow motion, the virtual beast in front of him bearing its teeth. Until the tip of his sword met the neck of the wolf, impaling it right through. The hit had scored a crit, draining the wolf's health to zero.

Another wolf came at Lelouch right after the dead wolf turned into pixels, catching him completely off-guard. Instinctively he raised his free arm to block the attack. No pain coursed through him as the monster chomped down on his arm, but he did notice his health depleting by maybe a quarter.

Lelouch slammed the tip of his blade into the wolf's body, successfully shoving the wolf off of his arm, depleting half of the wolf's total health. Before any more wolves could pounce on him, Lelouch backed up several feet from the pack of wolves, chuckling softly at the encounter.

_'Damn that was close,' _Lelouch thought, watching the movements of the encroaching wolves, watching for any openings, _'Maybe I should get out of here while I can, then again maybe not.' _

A wide grin spread across Lelouch's face as he realized something intriguing, he was having fun. He was having fun, but the strange part was that he didn't immediately recognize it as fun. He found it incredibly funny that he had completely forgotten what having genuine fun was like.

_'I guess having fun just isn't possible when conquering the world,' _he thought, realizing that the wolves had closed in on him while he was lost in his thoughts, _'I really need to stop doing that.' _

Lelouch decided with the amount of health, 200/250, classifying the mauling the last dog had done to his arm as its most powerful attack. He could take a few grazes from the wolves, but a few direct hits would end up with him dead. Seeing as there was no clear opening for him to hit in the wolves' formation, having putting the wolf with the least health in the back, making it impossible to pick it off.

Lelouch let out a dark chuckle as he realized that there were absolutely no openings for him to hit at this level. It would take a miracle to take down all of the wolves. Then again, he was Zero, the Man of Miracles.

* * *

Lelouch sat on a bench in Starter City, eating a piece of bread that he had bought from a vendor earlier with the money or Col, that he had gotten from killing the pack of wolves. He had some how been able to kill the rest of the wolves and with all the experience he had received from the wolves, he easily reached level 2 and now was half-way to reaching level 3.

_'Even when I'm dead, I still make miracles, even if this is just in a game,' _he thought, a wryly smirk gracing his face. He silently watched the other players exploring Starter City in curiosity, as he expected them to. All of this was just so amazing that even he felt like going out into this new world, that he felt like thanking the creator of SAO, Kayaba Akihiko, in person. Though that was probably a long shot if any.

_'There isn't much for me to do here,' _he thought idly, getting more and more bored as the seconds flew by, _'I should probably log off.' _

Lelouch opened his personal menu and began navigating to the 'log out' button and then his finger stopped suddenly. The reason being was because there was no 'log out' button and he knew for a fact that it was supposed to be there.

_'Is this some kind of glitch or something?' _he asked mentally, looking back up at the other players wandering around, the seemed to be having the same problems. Many reacted the same way he did, others more drastically than others. Some kept a cool head and tried to reassure the ones that were completely blowing it out of proportion. Before he could say anything, he was suddenly consumed by a sudden bloom of blue pixels.

When the pixels had dissipated around him, he found himself to be surrounded by other players. His avatar's dark brown eyes dashed around the surrounding area, finding that he had been teleported to the stadium in Starter City.

Many people reacted as expected, questioning what was going on and why were they here. Though the answer was clear enough, someone had forced a mass teleport.

"Look up there!" another player called out, making everyone in the stadium look up simultaneously. In the sky was a red message screen, simply saying warning. Then the one sign soon multiplied to hundreds, soon blanketing the sky, masking the orange hue of the setting virtual sun.

Then out of the thin cracks of the warning signs, something poured out of them. The masses of whatever that was soon began to clump together and massed into a giant floating crimson cloak. There was a body in the cloak, but the cloaked man didn't have a face. Other players began to question what was happening. Lelouch remained silent, also wondering what exactly was happening. Then a loud booming voice said to them, "Attention, players. I welcome you to my world."

_'My world?' _Lelouch repeated, curious about what he had meant by that. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba," Kayaba greeted, making everyone around him relax, but himself of course, "And of this moment, I am in control of this world."

Lelouch's eyes widened at the statement, knowing that something was going to go wrong. The other players didn't know that, trusting the man that had created the game to not do anything. Though Lelouch knew better, he knew the evil what even good men can do.

"I'm sure you've all noticed that an item is missing from your main menus, the log out button," Kayaba began, getting a few murmurs from the crowd around Lelouch, "Let me assure you that this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

Lelouch clenched his fists at the statement, knowing what was going to happen before Kayaba had even spoke, "You cannot log yourself out of SAO, and no from the outside will be able to shut down or take off the 'NerveGear' from your head. If anyone would attempt to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave into your skull, destroying your brain, thus ending your life."

Many angry players began cursing at the cloaked figure, all in vain. Unlike Lelouch who knew that the NerveGear would be able to do such a thing, so if the safety were turned off, it would do as Kayaba had said. Luckily the NerveGear had an internal battery so even if the power would be cut, they would still live.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear, an unfortunate decision, to say the least," Kayaba continued, his voice completely indifferent, "As a result, the game now has two-hundred thirteen less players than when it began. They've both been erased from Aincard and the real world."

Lelouch didn't flinch, being the formal emperor that killed millions of people, a few hundred innocent people dead didn't affect him whatsoever. Then several screens popped in front of Kayaba, all playing news reports of the event.

"As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume that the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you attempt to clear the game," Kayaba began sounding a little proud of himself as he continued, "It's important to remember the following: There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain.

There is only one way for a player to escape now, you must clear the game. Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad.

If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor.  
Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

The other players began to question everything the cloaked man was saying, a few realized that it was no use questioning the man who was currently in control of all of them and kept silent. Though there were a few who began doubting that the goal of reaching level 100 was even attainable, which bugged Lelouch greatly.

"Last but not least, I've placed a little gift for every player in there inventory," Kayaba began, "Please have a look."

Curious, Lelouch opened his inventory and found an item that wasn't there before, a mirror. Equipping the item, it appeared in his hand showing his avatar's face. Then in a flash of pixels spreading across his face, instead of the avatar's face in the mirror, he found his **own** amethyst eyes staring back at him. That wasn't it, he felt as if he had returned to his real life body. Every contour had felt perfectly correct.

_'How did...' _he trailed off, wondering how his actual face and body had been able to be put into the game before the memories told him, _'The high-density signal device! It can see my face! Not just that, when he had first gotten into the NerveGear, there was a calibration stage that made him feel all across his body. So Kayaba had taken the data and replaced them with our avatars.' _

Recovering faster than most, Lelouch's gaze returned on Kayaba, who began to speak once again, "Right now, you are probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal is a simple one. The reason I had created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design."

_'So he's doing this to quench his god complex?' _he thought, completely outraged at the notion. Since the only other people he knew to have a god complex were in the Royal Family, he didn't have too many good experiences with people of the kind.

"Bastard..." the raven-haired teen growled aloud. "As you can see, I've achieved my goal. This marks an end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online," he continued, "Players, I wish you the best of luck."

With that, the cloak began disappearing past the red warning signs. Leaving the players to their thoughts, not one person saying a single word. The other players didn't move, completely shocked by what had just occurred. Though it was already stated that Lelouch wasn't just another player.

_'So this game isn't a game anymore. If I die here, I die in real life. He's telling the truth, he wouldn't pull a move like this if he wasn't,' _he thought, hanging his head so that his raven-black bangs covered his face with shadows, _'Well then...' _

With that thought, Lelouch began making his way towards the exits as he noticed the red warning signs had began to disappear.

Lelouch needed to get out of Starter City and to one of the outside villages. He needed to level up, to become stronger so that he could get himself and the other players out of SAO. So he needed to get to the quests and monsters that gave him the most experience. He wasn't going to allow anyone else to die if he had any say in it.

In his old life, he could care less if he killed a random innocent in his endeavors, selfishly shedding blood left-to-right for his own purposes. Lelouch refused to think that way once again, redemption being his drive, he ran as fast as his virtual legs would carry him.

The man who was once known as demon emperor had known that saving his fellow players wouldn't come close to redeeming what he had done as Zero and Emperor of Britannia. Though if anything it would serve to calm all the guilt he felt, giving himself the knowledge he had some kind of conscience inside his black heart. Then his thoughts fell onto his 'brother' as he ran.

Knowing how his new adoptive brother thought, Lelouch knew that Kazuto would do the same and head to the next town. So he planned to meet him at the nearest village to Starter City. Weaving his way past all buildings of Starter City.

When he ran past the gates of Starter City, he followed the path that he knew would end up leading him to his next destination. Suddenly a wolf spawned directly in front of him. The sight of the red-eyed monster caused determination to spread inside him.

_'I will get these people out of here, I will beat this game, because I am Zero!' _he began, determination deep in his thoughts, unsheathing his sword and placed it onto his shoulder. The same violet glow appeared around Lelouch's sword as the sword skill vertical activated, sending him forward, slashing through the wolf. One thought running through his mind, _'The man who will destroy the world of Aincard!' _

* * *

Well that's it folks. I hoped you enjoyed and I hope you will point out anything I may of got wrong. I also already know that people will question why the Collective Unconscious had chosen the world of Sword Art Online, well because I made it that way, deal with it.

Anyways review/follow/favorite and other stuff like that. PEACE OUT!


	2. Chapter 1: Outside Looking In

Hey guys, I am back with chapter 2 of Complete Immersion. Hope you guys enjoyed the prologue of the story. So anyway I hope you guys enjoy this one. Nothing much to say really, so I'm just going to the respond to the reviews that came in for the first chapter.

**Kinunatzs: Thanks for the feedback, even I struggled with the idea of the Sugu/Lulu emotional scene. Though I forgot to say that the question Lelouch asked was of simple curiosity, while Sugu saw it as something else. So still thanks for the support. **

**NUPhoenix: Thanks, I try my best. **

**darkkrt: Don't worry, I will be updating Where Real Monsters Go soon enough, it was that this idea hit me so quickly that I needed to do it. The same way Where Real Monsters Go ended up coming into fruition. **

**Hayden-Strife: Making Lelouch's screen name a knightmare wouldn't work because the Lelouch he had replaced had already set the name during the beta, which he wasn't present for. **

**-Mandatory Disclaimer-**

I don't own either Code Geass or Sword Art Online.

**-Chapter 1: Outside Looking In-**

_'I can't believe it's been a month since being trapped inside of this death game,' _Lelouch thought off-handily. His thought going back to the events of the past month. The only notable thing that happened was that he and Kazuto had reunited at the town next to Starter City. Which wasn't really noteworthy either, they had simply found each other on the path to the next village.

The month after that was spent grinding separately and then regrouping at a designated meeting point. Since they knew where the easiest and the most experience points lay in Floor One, they easily achieved level nine respectively.

Though the frustrating part was that no one was able to find the first boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, a gigantic crimson dog. Which was extremely hard to find, even for the beta testers, so a month passed without any progress. When Lelouch and Kazuto had heard about a meeting discussing the elusive boss, they immediately made their ways back to Starter City.

They were now sitting in a small marble auditorium where the meeting was taking place, waiting for the leader of the meeting to appear.

"You think they actually found the boss?" Kazuto whispered to him, snapping him out of his thoughts. The young raven-haired teen looked over to his adoptive brother, replying simply, "We can only hope."

"I can feel the optimism," Kazuto stated sarcastically, looking over the other players who had came to the meeting. They were conversing to each other normally, almost if this meeting didn't bring them one more step to being free from this death game.

Kazuto then looked over to his raven-haired brother, who had bore a look that was completely unreadable, something that he hadn't seen in his brother in the fourteen years he knew him. Strangely the last month had been filled with those moments, but Kazuto attributed the change in attitude to be trapped in Aincard. He knew that every player had their own way of dealing with it, nevertheless it made him uneasy.

Lelouch watched over the stage that was surrounded by seats carved out of marble, greatly resembling the an amphitheater of ancient Rome. This was where the meeting concerning Illfang, would commence.

The raven-haired teen wasn't impressed by the number of players who had came to the meeting and hoped, in the likelihood that they will have to fight the first boss, was capable of organizing and directing squads of people.

Eventually the pair of brothers spotted a blue-haired player walk onto the stage, adorning what resembled a medieval knight's armor, that shared the same color scheme of his hair. A blue shield on the man's back with a sword sitting right behind the shield. Both brothers felt the confidence that man had and instantly knew that he was going to be the leader of the meeting. Positioning himself on the stage as expected, he called out to every player in the amphitheater, "Okay, people. Now that everyone's here, lets get this meeting started."

Every player began to cease their conversations and turned to the blue-haired man dressed in a knight's armor.

"So anyway, I want to first thank all of you for coming. Nice to see all of you," the leader of the meeting began cheerily, "My name is Diabel and I like to think of this meeting as my duty as a knight!"

Everyone was equally amused by the statement, all knowing that there was no job system in the game, something in which someone had called out during the laughter.

"You guys want to hear this or not?" Diabel asked the laughing players, who soon quieted down after he spoke as his tone had gotten deadly serious, "Right here's the deal. Our party has found the boss room at the top of the tower today."

Every player in the amphitheater eyes had widen at the announcement, many not expecting that they had found it since it had took more than a month for the combined efforts of every clearer, the name for a player focused on clearing the game, and they still found nothing. So when the clearers present heard of the discovery of Illfang's chamber, they were all ecstatic inside.

"First we need to defeat the boss to advance to Floor Two," Diabel began, stating the obvious, "The next step is to tell everyone in Starter City that it is possible to beat the game!"

The players directly in front of Diabel cheered in unison, all already subscribing the idea. Though many of the other players had already given up hope and were now completely contempt with being stuck in this game for the rest of their lives.

Lelouch wasn't that optimistic, he knew that eventually the Japanese government won't be able to pay for the medical expenses needed to keep every player in the game alive while they were inside, eventually they will have to pull the plug on each and everyone of them.

Analyzing the way Diabel had spoken to the crowd, Lelouch knew that the blue-haired knight was a born leader. He would of made a fine military commander in the real world, but for now he would have to settle with leading a raiding party on Illfang's chamber.

"Fact is, it is our duty as the most capable players in the game! Don't you all agree?" Diabel called out, every player in the lower decks cheered at the statement, clearly affected by the knight's words, "Okay glad to hear that you're all with me on this, now lets figure out how we're going to beat the boss.

First off, we'll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss, so we need a raid party made up of multiple parties."

The idea made perfect sense. As Diabel said, a normal party wouldn't stand a chance against any boss, even with the amount of players the raid party had at the moment, they wouldn't come close to beating the boss.

The reasoning behind was that having multiple parties was the same reason for having multiple squads on a battlefield. When a squad's numbers would deplete, send another squad to reenforce them so the other squad could have some time to regroup, vice versa.

So Lelouch contributed this to Diabel's strategic knowledge, Lelouch having seen decent commanders fall due to thinking that they'll conquer with numbers alone. Unfortunately the raiding party didn't have numbers on the kobold lord, who could spawn sentinels during the fight. They weren't very high level, but they would prove to be more of a nuisance if they weren't accounted for.

The former emperor was impressed by the blue-haired knight, clearly having a better understanding of strategy than most and had the charisma to inspire people to follow him. He clearly would of made a good military commander in the real world, but this clearly wasn't the real world.

Though as he sat there, one detail about the whole raid picked at him. It was the fact that they really didn't know what they were facing in Illfang. The beta testers had gathered data a substantial amount of data on the kobold lord during the beta, but it wasn't completely certain.

Lelouch doubted that someone as smart as Kayaba wouldn't make things that easy for them, his goal was to entrap him in Aincard. The mad genius even said that he had complete control of this world, so it would make sense to change some aspects of the first ten bosses to catch them by surprise. It was what he would do in Kayaba's place.

The raven-haired teen glanced over at his adoptive brother, wondering what he thought about the situation. Though something else had caught his attention, it was a cloaked figure, sitting on the same row as they were. The figure's gender was indistinguishable due to the fact that that he or she had hid their face from sight with a crimson cloak. The figure was completely alone, no one else even acknowledging that they was even there at all. So he came to the conclusion that he or she had been left out.

Kazuto and himself made up their entire party and he didn't have any qualms with it, as they were the two of the highest leveled players in the game at this point. Lelouch knew that having a party of a single player wouldn't bode well, especially for the player.

The young raven-haired teen stood from his marble seat and walked over to the cloaked figure and sat down next to the figure. This caught the attention of the figure immediately, though to someone less attentive, it would of looked like the person ignored him completely.

"You got left out?" Lelouch asked the cloaked stranger indifferently, his amethyst eyes glancing over towards the hooded figure. For a second, he could of swore he saw a strand of orange hair past the hood, which brought up a few memories of Shirley. "Not even close," the figure replied defensively, the voice clearly being one of a female's, "Everyone else already seems to know one another."

"So you're a solo player too?" Kazuto asked from besides him, surprising Lelouch slightly as he did not notice his 'brother' following him over to the girl. Looking back over to the her, Lelouch was just able to catch a glimpse of a nod from underneath the crimson hood.

"Would you like to join our party then, you heard what he said, we've all got a better chance if we stick together," Kazuto offered casually, assuring her that she did not have to accept the invitation. "Sure," the cloaked girl answered in a completely deadpan tone.

Kazuto had clearly expected a bit more of a reaction from the girl, making Lelouch snicker softly, which earned him a painless elbow in the ribs from his adoptive brother, causing an even more amused smirk creep onto Lelouch's features.

Kazuto then sent the crimson-cloaked girl a party request, which she accepted as soon as it popped up. Lelouch had heard his 'brother' grumble something under his breath, probably directed towards him.

The young raven-haired teen glanced at the left-hand corner of his HUD, to see a new party member graphic underneath his own status bar. The name simply read: Asuna, one of the more unique names he had found in the game so far.

"It looks like everyone has partied up. Now then..." Diabel began before he was suddenly cut-off by a yell from the top of the amphitheater.

"Hold up a second!" came the voice, drawing everyone's attention towards him. There at the top of the amphitheater was a male player, the front of his figure completely covered by the shadows that came in through the spaces at the marble columns at the top of the theater.

Though Lelouch was able to see that he had haired that spiked up in several tufts. Then the figure bounded down the seats of the theater gracefully, now able to see that his spiked hair was the color orange. When he finally reached the ground floor of the theater, he yelled out loud enough for everyone to hear him, "My name's Kibaou, got that!

Before we take on the boss, I want to get something off my chest! We all know that two thousand players have died so far, yeah? Some of you need to apologize right now!"

Everyone in the theater froze, wanting to know who the mysterious spiky-haired was blaming right now. Everyone except Lelouch of course, who already knew he was talking about. He was talking about the beta testers.

Lelouch had heard some players talking about the beta testers, blaming them for taking all the easy experience quests and knowing where the good experience giving mobs spawned. Which wasn't right at all, since much of the information the beta testers had collected had went into the starter's handbook. Which was given to all the players who survived the initial SAO incident.

"Kibaou, I think I know who you're talking about," Diabel began, "Are you referring to the ex-beta testers?"

"Of course I mean them!" Kibaou retorted, "The day this stupid game started, the beta testers got up and vanished right?"

The players around them began nodding, many of them recalling that the beta-testers had vanished, making it hard for everyone who wasn't a beta-tester as many didn't know how to play. Looking over to Kazuto, he saw his 'brother' gulp anxiously, not wanting to stick out from the crowd.

"They all ditched the beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots and grabbed all the easy quests too!" Kibaou continued, completely infuriated, "They were the only ones getting stronger here, they've ignored us like we're nothing. Hell, I bet there are beta-testers here now!"

With that, every player began looking at the players around them, wondering if the person next to them was a beta-tester. This infuriated Lelouch, the fact that people would start questioning the friendships they've built so easily made him do so. His former best friend, betrayed him time and time again, but he still refused to stop calling him friend.

"Come on out beta-testers! We should make them apologize to us, then we should make them give up all our money and items they got!" Kibaou yelled, gaining cheers from many of the players in the front rows, "They can't expect the party to trust them when they can't trust us! Why should we?"

This all sounded so familiar to Lelouch, the unfairness that the spiky-haired bastard was displaying was just so nostalgic it amused him. The memories of being beaten up by Japanese children just because he was Britannian and the actions his countrymen had made that were completely out of his action. Many times they had taken the money he had won during chess matches that would go into feeding Nunally and himself. A low chuckle grew in his throat, which then turned into full-blown laughter. In such a dark tone, that it made everyone around him shiver in fear.

This served to draw everyone's attention towards the former emperor. Simply not caring, Lelouch stood from his marble seat, ceasing his laughter completely, and began making his way down towards the spiky-haired player.

Lelouch watched as the players around him tremble in fear, all startled by the thick atmosphere he had created around himself, coupled with the twisted smile he had dawned made it impossible to not do so. When he stood face to face with Kibaou, he frowned and narrowed his eyes in disgust at the spiky-haired man as he trembled.

"Who do you think you are?" Lelouch asked venomously, gaining a whimper from the orange-haired man, "You claim that the beta-testers abandoned the beginners, am I correct?"

Kibaou nodded at the question tentatively, still not believing the aura the relatively young looking teen had been giving off. With that, Lelouch pulled out a small leather handbook, on the cover saying, 'Starter's Handbook.'

"The item store gave this out for free. This is a guidebook, is it not? Did you not receive one?" Lelouch asked. Kibaou for the first time since his appearance from the crowd spoke, "Y-yeah I did, so what?"

"And who handed them out?" Lelouch continued, "The beta-testers! Everyone had equal access to the information. Even then two-thousand people have died and you're going to allow their memories go to vain because of some silly squabbling?"

Lelouch turned on a heel and faced the crowd of astonished on-lookers.

"None of you came here to argue and point fingers," he called to the other players, using the same town when he gave speeches as Zero, bringing his right arm near his chest and clenched it, "No we came here because we all want to fight the first boss and then come one step closer to ending this death game! We can not do it if we begin to turn on each other, no we shall do it together!"

When he spoke his last word, he unclenched his gloved fist and raised it high in the air, and at first there was complete silence. Then a player clapped, looking over to it, it turned out to be Kazuto. Then more joined in applause and then eventually everyone in the amphitheater began clapping at his impromptu speech, including Kibaou himself, who seemed to learn to keep his mouth shut. Turning to Diabel, who was also clapping, seeming genuinely impressed by the speech.

"Sir Diabel, if you would be so kind, please continue," Lelouch requested, bowing as a show of respect. The blue-haired knight nodded as the other players ceased their applause also.

"Okay, now lets get back to the meeting then," Diabel began, sounding slightly relieved that the conflict had ended, "For info on the boss, it's all in here, the latest issue of the guidebook you just heard about..."

The blue-haired knight continued to brief the others of Illfang as Kibaou and Lelouch returned to their respective seats quietly. Many players having looks of respect for the young raven-haired teen as he walked back up to his seat, knowing that not many people would have the balls to speak.

Lelouch took his seat between Kazuto and Asuna once again, catching a pair of small smiles on his two companions. Though he knew that Kazuto would start asking questions soon enough, probably when they were alone, but for now he kept silent.

"According to the book, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an ax and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved sword type weapon called a Talwar. He can change his patterns of attack, too. That's it for the briefing.

As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the EXP; and whoever gets an item, gets to keep it. Any objections?" Diabel began and after gaining no objections from the crowd of players, he continued, "Good! We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning! Meeting adjourned, people."

With that everyone began stood and began filing out of the amphitheater, all of them stealing glances over in Lelouch's direction, all probably silently wondering, _'Just who is that guy?' _

* * *

A few hours had passed since the meeting and Lelouch was faced with the largest problem he had faced in awhile, trying to find something to do in the meantime. So he was forced to wander the streets of Starter City, looking for something to occupy his time until he felt tired enough to go to bed.

The sleeping in SAO was very much like normal sleep; you would only sleep when you're mentally tired and then you'd wake up completely refreshed. They even put in a way for the players to yawn realistically, a player would yawn when they would boot up from the several hours of being completely inactive.

Unlike normal sleep, once a player fell asleep, they couldn't be woken up by any outside force. A sleeping player could only wake up when their minds decided to awaken once again. Fortunately if the player was in a safe zone, no damage could be taken from any outside force and PK'ers were extremely rare, though Lelouch was sure that they would begin popping up sooner or later.

The raven-haired teen continued to wander the streets of Starter City before a sign caught his eye. It was a smithy. He stood in the middle of the street looking over to the store, a random curiosity beginning to pull him towards the store.

Lelouch wondered what about the non-descript shop was so interesting, taking another double take on the relatively bland-looking building. His curiosity and boredom began to mix together making it almost impossible for him to stand their any longer. So he walked over to the main entrance of the stone-brick building and went inside.

**-Asuna POV-**

Asuna slipped her hood off of her head, allowing her long orange hair to cascade down her back.

"It's good to see you again Lisbeth," She told the brunette standing in front of her, cracking a small smile at her only friend in this death game. She and Lisbeth had met a week after being trapped in this accursed game.

Asuna had came to her to upgrade her weapon at the time, but she soon found herself coming back to the same shop over and over again. So it wasn't hard to see how she ended up befriending the brown-haired blacksmith. It only helped that Lisbeth had always carried a friendly demeanor that made Asuna trust her the moment they met, even when she really didn't want to make any friends here in SAO.

"You too Asuna," Lisbeth replied, "So what brings you to Starter City, I thought you were going out to the outer villages to grind some more."

"I was attending a meeting about the first floor boss, it seems that they found him," Asuna answered in a rather indifferent tone. "You don't sound too happy, I thought you wanted to get out of this game ASAP?" Lisbeth asked, tilting her head to the side questioningly.

"Yeah I do," Asuna answered, her gaze looking down at the floor boards of the shop. "So why so glum chum?" the brown-haired blacksmith asked curiously, which gained a loud sigh from Asuna.

There was one reason that Asuna felt this way, it was the two guys she had agreed to party with. It wasn't that she didn't like them, she actually found them to be decent people on first impression. Rather it was the fact that they seemed to know each other quite well and she was the stranger in the party so she didn't know if she could really trust them, especially the one who had spoken up against Kibaou and defended the beta-testers.

The raven-haired teen easily made everyone in the stadium tremble in fear with that almost sadistic laugh of his, but to top it all off, he some how ended up rallying the same people he had stabbed fear into. He was going to be someone to watch closely in the future, because it was now clear that he was going to have a part to play in at the end of this death game.

"Asuna..." Lisbeth called to her, waving her gloved hand a few inches in front of her face. Asuna blinked at her best friend, not realizing that she had spaced out for a few seconds.

"So are you going to tell me what's bothering you or not?" Lisbeth asked, noticing that she had escaped her trance-like state. Asuna opened her mouth to answer the question, but it was soon cut off by the entrance of the shop creaking open slowly.

Lisbeth immediately turned towards the door and told the player in a friendly manner, "Sorry but we're closed!"

Asuna peeked over the shoulder of the brown-haired blacksmith and towards the player who had interrupted their conversation. Once she caught sight of the person standing in the doorway, she retracted her head back behind Lisbeth.

_'You've got to be kidding me!'_ Asuna exclaimed inwardly, the person in the doorway being the same person she had just been thinking about. There was no way that it couldn't be him, there was no way a person could mistake him for someone else. The player in the doorway had the same raven-black hair and dark amethyst eyes, it just had to be him.

"Asuna?" he had called out to her, the voice verifying his identity, but it also made her wonder how he had learned her name. "Um, yeah it's me," Asuna replied tentatively, stepping out from behind Lisbeth which probably resembled a child who had been caught by their parents doing something naughty.

"Do you know him Asuna?" Lisbeth asked curiously, as she didn't know her to socialize with the anyone, much less the opposite sex. "We met during at the raiding party meeting for the first boss, we're partying together for the raid," her raven-haired party member answered for her.

Asuna nodded at the explanation in affirmation, now asking the question that had been bugging her since he had called her name out, "How is it that you know my name?"

The raven-haired teen blinked his amethyst eyes and then slammed his palm into his face before answering exasperatedly, "When you join a party their names and statuses appear underneath your own."

It was now Asuna's turn to blink as she glanced up to the right-hand corner of her HUD, seeing two smaller status bars underneath her own. The orange-haired clearer let out an embarrassed chuckle as she hadn't noticed the two new bars before. The two names in the bars read: Kirito and Lerouge.

"So I'm guessing you're Lerouge?" Asuna asked, now guessing her party member's name based upon his appearance. He didn't answer, letting an awkward silence fall onto them until a small smile cracked his pale features as he replied, "Good guess."

Asuna let an awkward smile reach her face, inwardly relieved that she hadn't guessed wrong, Lerouge not looking like someone you wanted to offend in any way, shape, or form.

"So what brings you here Mr. Lerouge? Were you looking for Asuna?" Lisbeth cut in curiously, before adding on excitedly, "Is it possible that you're here to arrange a date."

The statement had snapped the tension that had filled the room in half and then into quarters. A blush threatened to appear on Asuna, but the orange-haired cleared fought it down with every ounce she had.

Fortunately Lerouge shook his head and answered, "No, I was just wandering around outside and came in here to see if I could upgrade my weapon before tomorrow's boss fight."

_'That's a coincidence, I run into one of my party members, and then run into the other one not an hour later,' _Asuna suddenly realized, wondering what forsaken entity was in control here.

"Well I can upgrade your weapon for you if you like," Lisbeth offered almost immediately after Lerouge answered her question, "I don't want you going in there under prepared."

With that Lisbeth walked behind the counter of the smithy and next to the station where all transactions made by the blacksmith were made, an iron next to a fire pit. Lerouge followed close behind, everything of his walk exhibiting complete confidence.

Lisbeth opened the player-trade screen in which Lerouge placed the weapon he was upgrading into. When it closed, Lisbeth began the upgrading process which took less than a second. A screen popped up, simply saying congratulations, which meant that the upgrade was successful.

The trade screen opened once again between Lisbeth and Lerouge. This time Lerouge placed two-hundred Col into his side of the screen, Lisbeth putting his weapon into her slot, and the two pressed accept. With the press of their buttons, the transaction was finished.

"I didn't expect you to have something like this," Lisbeth told the raven-haired teen, Asuna's ears perking up at the statement. "Something like what?" Asuna asked curiously.

"Yes and no. Unlike most of the other male players in this game, I have no qualms with having the rapier class as my main job, though I do occasionally switch from rapiers to one-handed straight swords whenever the situation calls for it," Lerouge explained as he opened his inventory, probably to see the new stats of his weapon.

Since the inventory screens in SAO were transparent, Asuna was able to catch the name of the blade, Slash Point. The pink-haired teen's eyes widen at the name of the sword.

Slash Point was the strongest rapier class weapon on the floor. This was a piece of information that she had gotten from the death game's most reliable information broker, Argo the Rat, for two-hundred fifty col.

The broker also told her how to acquire the blade since it was her first time there, you would have to complete a gathering quest for a NPC blacksmith, but unfortunately the quest had a level requirement of eight. Unfortunately she was only level six at the time and a long ways from her current level of seven.

_'So what level is he then?' _Asuna asked herself, finding extremely the fact to be extremely odd. Not only did Lerouge use the same exact weapon class as herself and seemingly excelled at it, but it was a class labeled by most of the male players as 'girly'. As a result, male rapier uses were uncommon in SAO, even players that would switch from one weapon class to the other. Which also was another very rare thing to see.

Though the more she thought of it, Lerouge did have many very little in the ways of masculine features and was on the scrawny side, so it did make sense on a physical level for him to be drawn towards the rapier class.

"Though I don't know why you're all so surprised, it's just a sword," Lerouge added, closing his inventory screen, "Well thank you Ms..."

"Lisbeth," the brown-haired blacksmith finished for him. "Thank you again Ms. Lisbeth," Lerouge added, bowing slightly and began making his way towards the door. Though right before reaching the door, Lerouge looked over his right shoulder at Asuna, simply told her, "You should probably get whatever upgrades you can get, shouldn't take any chances out there, because a life is an awful thing to waste."

With that the raven-haired teen pushed the wooden door open and walked out into the candlelit streets of Starter City, the door slowly coming to a close behind him with a soft thud.

**-The Next Day-**

**(Lelouch POV)**

"Let's go over it again. Since we're the smallest party in the raiding party, we're going to keep the kobold sentinels off the rest of the party so that they can focus completely on Illfang," Kazuto explained their party's role in the raid to he and Asuna, who were lagging a few feet behind the messy-haired teen. Lelouch glanced over towards the crimson-cloaked girl, who seemed to keep in their own bubble.

This action was completely understandable. As unlikely as it sounded, some people just weren't as open as others, something that some players didn't seem to get. That's why some players chose to go about their business as solo players. It wasn't hard for either Lelouch to tell that she was a solo player and she didn't make it hard for him either.

"I know," Asuna replied simply, popping Lelouch out of his thoughts as he found himself once again losing himself in his own thoughts.

"I'll use a sword skill to knock the sentinels' weapons out of their hands and get out of the way. When I do, either one of you two switch and jump in," Kazuto explained. The plan, though simple, would be effective for the task at hand.

"What's the switch?" Asuna asked, this being a question frequently asked by solo players, as they rarely fought in parties. Though that was a fact that Kazuto hadn't seemed to realize yet, something that surprised Lelouch, as he found that the teen was an extremely intelligent individual and fully expected him to see that.

Kazuto turned around and faced the cloaked girl, asking curiously, "Okay level with me. Is this your first time you've being in a party?"

"Uh-huh," Asuna confirmed in a deadpan tone, making Kazuto sigh in exasperation. Lelouch let a small, amused smile creep onto his face, finding Asuna's constant deadpan tones to very important questions amusing. They even made him nostalgic, as he himself got the same treatment once, from his favorite little witch.

* * *

Lelouch let out a relieved sigh when he saw the door to the first floor boss's room, his patience running thinner by the second as the whole damn party had to climb to the top of the damn tower to reach it.

Diabel, who had taken point for the duration of the trek to the door, approached the door confidently. A few feet away from the door, he turned on a heel and addressed the raiding party, "Listen up everyone! I got one thing to say, lets win!"

Every party, except his own, cheered at Diabel's comment in unison. The blue-haired turned back to the door and pushed it open, revealing the location where the first floor boss would take place.

There, sitting on a giant throne, sat a gigantic crimson canine-humanoid, or kobold for short. The beast glanced at the raiding party, its eyes flashing red, signaling to the party that it had turned hostile. The once dark room suddenly illuminated as the giant canine stood from its throne and leaped towards the raiding party, letting out a ferocious howl and brandishing its gigantic ax as it landed.

Directly above the giant beast appeared the red marker that signified an enemy mob, directly under it was the name Illfang the Kobold Lord. In front of it, three kobold sentinels spawned, and together the glorified hounds charged at the party.

Lelouch gripped the rapier that hung from his side and unsheathed it, seeing as many others in the party had already drew their weapons.

"Commence attack!" Diabel ordered, pointing his sword at the beast. At the words Lelouch charged forwards with the rest of the party, the rest of squad F close behind him, every player uttering their own battle cries in determination.

Leading the charge was the spiky-haired bastard himself, using a sword skill on the sentinel that was leading the kobold charge. Even though he loathed the man, Lelouch did give Kibaou credit for his determination to be free of this game.

* * *

A few moments later in the fight, the party had reorganized to what they had initially planned on doing, squads A, B, and C were tasked with fighting Illfang. Squads D, E, and F were in charge of keeping the sentinels off the main group.

"Squads A and C, switch in!" Diabel continued to bark orders from the center of the party, "Here it comes Squad B block!"

Doing as told the squad had blocked the incoming slash from the lord of the kobolds with their own combined attack.

"Squad C, keep guarding a prepare to switch," Diabel instructed, once again doing once as told, "Everyone else, when you fall back, regroup and flank them!"

Diabel turned to the squads fighting off the sentinels, simply yelling out, "Squads D, E, and F keep those sentinels off us!"

"Roger," Lelouch heard Kazuto reply before rushing off towards the nearest sentinel. The sentinel immediately jumped into the air with the intention of bringing its hammer down in a vertical swing.

The attack was easily parried by Kazuto, giving Lelouch an opening to attack, something that he was about to do before being cut off by Asuna. The cloaked girl looked like nothing more than a crimson blur as she rushed forward, calling out the number of sentinels they had slain together, "Number three!"

Lelouch caught the blade of her rapier glow a faint blue, thrusting forward with such speed that he was barely able to track it. The former emperor was impressed by the shear speed the girl had, one that almost rivaled his own.

Glancing over towards Kazuto, he could tell that his brother felt the same way about her, but they shook themselves of their astonishment and targeted the next sentinel. Knocking the hammer out of another sentinel's hands with slant, it created the perfect opportunity for Lelouch to captialize.

Dashing forwards, he closed in on the beast before its feet could touch the ground, but that could also be attributed to the fact that he was pretty close to the beast. Though he quickly cast off those thoughts as he sent his rapier straight through one of the openings in the sentinel's helmet, gaining a massive crit on the beast.

As it exploded into blue pixels, both Lelouch and Kazuto's attention were grabbed by the first floor boss, its roar ripping through the boss room. Both brothers watched as the giant canine's last health bar went into the red, which meant that he was going to switch to his talwar. That he did as Illfang threw his ax and shield up into the air carelessly.

"I'll go!" Lelouch heard Diabel yell from the crowd of players standing in front of the almost defeated boss. Rushing through the crowd of onlookers, Diabel stood directly in front of Illfang and activated a sword skill. His sword beginning to glow a bright yellow as he waited for Illfang to draw his next weapon.

_'What the hell is he doing?' _Lelouch thought, ducking under the swing of a kobold sentinel as he did so, _'We were supposed to attack it together.'_

Almost as he were accepting Diabel's challenge, Illfang drew his gigantic weapon from its sheathe. Though the sword that was produced made Lelouch's eyes widen in shock, noticing that the blade that Illfang carried wasn't a talwar, it was a no-dachi.

_'Dammit I need to do something,' _Lelouch thought desperately, knocking away the sentinel that was attacking him and lunged towards Diabel. Kazuto seemed to have the same idea as they both began running towards the endangered Diabel.

"No, jump away as fast as you can!" the two of them yelled, a warning that came too late as Diabel already began charging at Illfang.

The kobold lord showed a previously unseen nimbleness and jumped to the ceiling, jumping from stone pillar to stone pillar before plunging directly onto Diabel. The attack had caused a large gash down the blue-haired knights chest area, but the kobold lord was far from done.

Illfang lunged forwards landing another direct slash on Diabel, sending him flying over the parties behind him.

"Diabel!" Kibaou yelled worriedly before Illfang jumped into a few feet from the spiky-haired man, roaring loudly. While this happened, Lelouch and Kazuto ran over to the injured Diabel.

Kazuto got to the downed knight's side first, kneeling down and held a full-heal elixir up to his mouth as his health declined rapidly, Kazuto asking in frustration, "Why did you try to do it alone?"

By this time Lelouch had reached Diabel, watching him reject the potion that was offered him, much to Kazuto's shock. Diabel looked over at Lelouch than Kazuto, weakly saying, "You two were beta-testers weren't you? You know what I was doing."

_'No, he couldn't have...' _Lelouch thought, eyes widening at the shock of the statement, _'He was after the last attack bonus, he died over a stupid rare item?' _

"You were after the last attack bonus rare item, so you were a beta-tester to?" Kazuto asked in a tone completely void of worry, probably to calm the knight in what were to be his last moments. As he said this, a weak smile was forced onto Diabel's face as he slowly began to glow a faint blue, replying weakly, "Please... defeat... the boss... for everyone."

With those words Diabel's body disappeared in an explosion of blue pixels in Kazuto's hands, a look of pure sadness on Kazuto's face. Seeing the look on Kazuto's face, Lelouch silently pitied him as seeing someone die for the first time is always a traumatizing experience, even if it was in a game. The person was still died, Diabel still died.

Lelouch hung his head in respect of his fallen comrade for a moment, an action that he had only done a few times during his time as either Zero or the Demon Emperor. In the short time he had known Diabel, he had to say that he was impressed by the blue-haired knight. Diabel was ready to lead a group of people into a place where they all could have been killed wasn't exactly a common trait among men, and now that man was dead.

_'I told myself at the start of this game that I would get everyone out alive, that I would make sure no one else would die if he had anything to do with it,' _Lelouch thought, hands clenching in disgust of himself, _''God dammit, get a hold of yourself, there's a fight still being waged. Now focus!' _

Lelouch was then shook from his thoughts by Kazuto, who had now stood from his crouching position. His adoptive brother looked over towards Illfang and then towards Lelouch, a determined look on his face, telling Lelouch his plan silently.

_'Diabel, you're sacrifice today will not be in vain, I'll make sure of that,' _Lelouch thought, raising his head to reveal an equally determined expression gracing his own face. Tightening the grip he had on his sword, he answered Kazuto's silent question, "I'm with you."

"I'll go too," Asuna added taking position to Kazuto's right. His messy-haired brother glanced over to Asuna, replying, "Thanks."

With that the trio shot towards Illfang, gaining the attention of the rest of the raiding party, all probably wondering if they were crazy.

"We'll handle him like we did the sentinels," Kazuto explained simply. "Got it," Asuna replied while Lelouch gave a nod of acceptance.

As they grew near, Illfang seemed to notice that they were charging him and placed his clawed hand on the blade of his no-dachi, making streams of white light erupt from his blade. In response, Kazuto placed his own hand onto his blade, activating his own sword skill.

Their blades hit smashed together with equal force, sending both flying backwards, Kazuto yelling out, "Switch!"

Prompting Asuna to charge in. As the cloaked girl activated a sword skill, Lelouch noticed that Illfang had recovered faster than anticipated and yelled out, "Asuna watch out!"

Asuna simply leaned out of the way of swing, the sword flying past her head and catching on her cloak, instantly vaporizing it to pixels. She didn't even falter as she simply activated the sword skill linear and shot forward, knocking Illfang backwards with ease, yelling out, "Switch!"

Lelouch wasted no time in shooting forwards with all the speed he could muster soon finding himself to be a few feet away from the still staggered Illfang. Lelouch pulled slash point back and placed his hand over the blade, activating the sword skill dual-shot.

Lelouch shot forwards as he released the sword skill, thrusting the tip of the sword into the belly of Illfang twice, the strikes so fast that it looked like it was only immense strike. The strikes were more than enough to knock the first floor boss of its feet and onto his back.

"Switch!" Lelouch called out as he jumped backwards taking his place next to Asuna, noticing the figure of Kazuto rushing by him. His adoptive brother placed his blade behind his back, meaning that he was activating the sword skill sonic leap.

Lelouch watched Kazuto leap a great distance into the air and then swung down towards Illfang. It seemed that he would hit his mark at first, but in another show of agility, Illfang sprang to his feet in less than an instant. Though it gave Kazuto enough time to attempt to block the incoming slash, which proved to be in vain.

Lelouch watched as his adoptive brother flew right at him and Asuna, neither having enough time to dodge the flying body of their party member as they were both in post move cool down phase. The impact of the hit was enough to send all of them sliding several feet away.

Lelouch forced himself back to his feet as Illfang began closing in on he and his party, preparing the take the full blunt of the attack, but thankfully the rest of the raiding party stepped in between him and the boss. A gigantic man with dark skin glanced over to him before engaging the boss and said, "We'll hold him off while you guys regroup!"

Lelouch nodded and watched the rest of the raiding parties attempt to hold off Illfang, an act that didn't last very long as the kobold lord spun his gigantic tail around, effectively sending the raiding part onto their backsides. Immediately after, Illfang jumped into the air and swung downwards, seeming to be aiming at man who had saved their skins earlier.

In the corner of his eye, Lelouch saw his adoptive brother clamber onto his feet and reactivate sonic leap. With a massive leap, Kazuto flew towards Illfang screaming, "I'll hit you first!"

Kazuto intercepted the attack of Illfang completely, landing a clean downward cut in the boss's shoulder, sending the kobold lord off course and into the ground behind the raiding party. Kazuto combat rolled and continued charging at Illfang, calling out to his two party members, "Come on guys, one last hit, all together."

"On it/Roger!" the two rapier users confirmed and began running with Kazuto towards Illfang, Asuna was on his right, Lelouch had taken his left.

Illfang immediately tried to swing at one of the three charging him, but it was completely nullified by a well executed parry by Kazuto. Clearing just enough room for Lelouch and Asuna to lunge forwards and hit with a pair of linears, the combined force of both the blows hitting made the boss stagger backwards a few feet. Finally Kazuto jumped into the air and landed a clean diagonal cut from Illfang's right shoulder to his left hip, effectively scoring a debilitating hit on the first floor boss.

Sensing an opening, Lelouch's predatory instincts suddenly kicked in, making him lunge forwards towards the kobold lord. Knowing that Illfang should be extremely close to being defeated, Lelouch activated the strongest sword skill he had in his possession, Quadruple Pain.

His rapier glowing once again, Lelouch jumped into the air and sent four lightning fast strikes into Illfang's chest, the last stab had actually managed to pierce through the thick skin of the kobold lord.

Lelouch's eyes widened in shock, hearing a loud, angry scream come from his left. His snapping over to that direction, he saw Kazuto rushing towards him. His sword trailing behind him, leaving a trail of blue light from where his sword met with Illfang's skin.

_'SHIT!' _Lelouch cursed, pulling his rapier from Illfang's chest and leaned back, causing him to fall backwards, landing on his back with a loud thud. Thankfully everyone seemed to busy watching Kazuto finishing off what was left of Illfang's health to notice his blunder.

Though Lelouch did have to admit that it was quite the spectacle, Kazuto ripping through the boss was quite the thing to see. When his adoptive brother's blade the kobold lord, Illfang was sent flying, streams of blue light coming from the open wounds left by their attacks.

Lelouch's eyes, for the first time in their entire battle against the battle, fell on Illfang's health bars. A small smile of satisfaction came to his lips as he watched the colored bar reduce to nothing. Then the boss exploded into a flurry of blue pixels, Lelouch's smile turning into a frown as the other raiding parties began cheering.

The memory of Diabel reaching the same fate invaded his mind, turning any happiness he felt about beating the boss into the emptiness. There was no real cause for celebration today. They beat their enemy today, but what's beating an enemy when a good man dies in the process?

"Hey Lerouge, are you alright?" Asuna asked from out of nowhere, pulling him away from his thoughts. "No, I'm not," Lelouch muttered soft enough that no one would be able to hear it, stabbing his rapier into the ground and pushed himself off the ground, glancing at the orange-haired girl standing next to him saying, "Come on, we have a hero to congratulate."

Lelouch walked over to his kneeling brother, finding that he bore a troubled look on his face, probably feeling the same way he felt about today's victory. Asuna was the first one to speak, "Nice job."

Lelouch wanted to say something to reassure Kazuto, but even with being in close proximity with him for the past month, he still didn't feel comfortable enough to attempt such a thing. So he decided to allow Kazuto to sift through his own emotions, knowing from experience that it was the best way to overcome things like this.

"That was fine swordsmanship out there," the voice of the dark-skinned man from earlier said, Lelouch hadn't noticed him being too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice, "Today's victory belongs to you."

"No," Kazuto muttered in response, shaking his head in anger. Clearly he felt guilty about receiving the praise that was given him, who would when it came with the fact that their leader had died in the process. Yet more cheers rose from the other clearers, all to caught up with the rush of victory to realize that what they had lost.

"All of you stop cheering!" Lelouch heard Kibaou's voice arise from the crowd, gaining everyone's attention, "Why'd you do it huh? Why'd you let Diabel die?"

"Let him die?" Kazuto replied completely dumbfounded by the statement. Lelouch narrowed his eyes at the spiky-haired man accusing his adoptive brother, thinking angrily, _'What the hell is he doing, everyone believed that Illfang was going to pull out a talwar, so why is he pointing fingers?' _

"That's what I said. Admit it, you knew about the technique the boss was going to use," Kibaou continued, hell bent on pointing the blame on him, "You could've told us, then Diabel would've stood a chance. He wouldn't of died!"

"I know why he knew, he used to be a beta-tester!" added another player from the growing crowd, "Think about it! He knew about the boss's attack patterns! He knew but it kept it from us! And I bet that the other guy in his party is one too, the one with those purple eyes, why else would he have so readily defended them yesterday!"

_'Dammit, if things keep going on like this...' _Lelouch thought, formulating a way to get their attention away from beta-testers before they became the bane of SAO and focus all of their focus onto to something else, something in which all of their hate could be focused on. Then it dawned on him, he knew what needed to be done.

Lelouch glanced down at Kazuto and by the look on his face, he seemed to be thinking the same thing he was. Walking over to his adoptive brother, Lelouch knelt down next to Kazuto and placed a hand on his shoulder, whispering into his ear, "If you're serious about doing this, we do this together."

"Everyone suspects me right now, if I do this I can get all of their suspicion off of you and onto-" Kazuto began arguing before Lelouch cut him off in mid-sentence. "No one should shoulder all the hate alone," Lelouch countered, obviously referring to himself and the zero requiem. Still the sentence proved effective in its purpose, shutting his adoptive brother up so he could feign kindness by adding, "Plus, what kind of brother would I be if let my brother throw himself to the wolves?"

Kazuto blinked at his argument and seemed to realize that he wasn't going to take no for an answer, so he nodded, smiled, and replied, "On three do that laugh you did yesterday at the amphitheater. One... two... three."

While they counted Lelouch could hear someone trying to defuse the situation, which was a lost cause before it even started. When someone is completely set on something, not many things can steer them off that same course, they needed to be shoved off completely.

Lelouch let a dark chuckle rise in his throat and hearing this, Kazuto began following his lead and began chuckling. After that, their two minds seemed to connect at this moment as their laughter began rising in intensity as the seconds passed in complete unison. The two stood up from the ground they were kneeling on and once they saw everyone's attention focused directly on them, they ceased all of their laughing.

Everyone around them seemed to be completely petrified and even Kibaou, who had begun all of this, seemed to regret doing so. A malice filled smirk crept onto his face as he saw Kibaou's shaking, happy that he was able to get the opportunity to push his buttons once again.

"So you guys think that I used to be a beta-tester, eh?" Kazuto asked indignantly, "It's not cool to compare someone like us to those noobs."

"What'd you say?" Kibaou stuttered, shaking from either anger or fear, but Lelouch greatly suspected the latter.

"You heard him. Most of the thousand people in SAO's beta were complete rookies. They were so green that most didn't even know how to level up properly," Lelouch chimed in, voice still laced with amusement, "Hell, even you fools are thousands of times better than those guys."

"But we are nothing like those noobs," Kazuto followed, mimicking his own tone perfectly, "During the beta, we made it to the floors that no other beta-tester could even imagine."

"So what if we knew about Illfang's attack pattern," the raven-haired teen scoffed, "It's only because we've faced monsters that makes Illfang look like a frenzy boar."

"And we know much more than that, much more than any information broker," his adoptive brother finished confidently, every player around them looking as if they were going to faint.

"If that's true, then you guys are worse then beta-testers," Kibaou exclaimed in his bewilderment, looking as if his head was going to explode from all the anger that was coursing through his veins, "You're goddamn cheaters, that what you two are!"

"You're beta-testers and cheaters, you're beaters!" a random player yelled from the crowd, soon enough every player began chanting that same phrase at them venomously, trying to get under their skins. Lelouch noticed that two players in particular had refrained from doing the same as the others. Asuna and the giant man from earlier, looks of understanding on their faces, probably able to see what they had meant to do. Still even with all of those players sending their hate towards them, they stood strong, not even flinching at their curses.

"Beater, eh?" Lelouch repeated indifferently before smirking darkly and adding, "I like it."

"Yeah, it has a nice ring to it doesn't it?" Kazuto asked him casually, making it sound like they had been talking about the weather this whole time, "You can call us that. Just make sure you don't confuse us with those beta-testers again."

With that, they began walking towards the entrance at the other end of the boss room, the one that would lead to the newly unlocked second floor. Not sparing a second glance at the mass of petrified players they had left behind.

Lelouch climbed up the four concrete steps leading to the gigantic door leading to the next floor, reaching out to open it when he heard Asuna yell from behind him, "Wait!"

The former emperor turned to the orange-haired girl, Kazuto doing the same thing next to him, both waiting for the girl to say something.

"You're name is Kirito right?" Asuna asked, gaining an affirmative nod from Kazuto as she continued, "Well goodbye, Kirito, Lerouge."

"Bye," Lelouch stated simply before opening up his menu and pressed the disband party option, pressing accept when the option came up. "Word of advice, you can become really powerful on your own, but when the time comes when a guild asks you to join, accept," Kazuto explained rather indifferently, "Because you can only do so much on your own."

Lelouch took this as a cue to push open the giant concrete doors in front of him and walked through them, Kazuto following close behind. Just before entering the second floor, Lelouch heard Asuna say to them, "I'll keep that in mind."

**-End-**

Well that's a wrap folks. Do you like how I did this chapter or did you think I should burn in hell for all the changes I made. Either way, thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed.

Thank and PEACE OUT!


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